Gulbenkian Choir a cappella
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Date
- 20:00 / Cancelled 20:00 / Sold out Wednesday, 20:00
Location
Grand Auditorium Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation- Conductor
- Viola
- Viola
- Cello
- Cello
- Double bass
- Ricardo Martins Piano
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Gulbenkian Choir
Coro Gulbenkian was founded in 1964 by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation as a full symphonic body of around 100 singers. The choir joins the Orquestra Gulbenkian and other orchestras to perform Classical, Romantic and Contemporary choral-symphonic repertoire, but can also perform a cappella. It has performed – and often premiered – many 20th century works by Portuguese and international composers.
Coro Gulbenkian has been invited to collaborate with major international orchestras, under the direction of conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Colin Davis, John Nelson, Emmanuel Krivine, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Frans Brüggen, Franz Welser-Möst, Gerd Albrecht, Michael Gielen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, René Jacobs and Leonard Slatkin, among others.
Besides its regular season of concerts in Lisbon and frequent national tours, Coro Gulbenkian has repeatedly toured Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Macao, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Uruguay.
Coro Gulbenkian has recorded extensively for Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Erato, Cascavelle, Musifrance, as well as FNAC-Music, performing a wide range of repertoire, from Early-Renaissance polyphony to Xenakis. Several of these albums received international awards.
Michel Corboz was the Principal Conductor between 1969 and 2019. Jorge Matta and Inês Tavares Lopes are currently the Associate and Assistant conductors, respectively.
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Martina Batič
Principal Conductor
Martina Batič is one of the leading choir directors of her generation. As the winner of the renowned Eric Ericson Competition 2006, she is celebrated for her particular versatility in conducting a broad choral repertoire from chamber music to symphony.
Martina Batič has been Principal Conductor of the Chœur de Radio France from 2018-2022. Before that, she held the position of Artistic Director of the Slovenian Philharmonic Choir. From 2004-2009, Martina Batič was Artistic Director of the Choir of the Slovenian National Opera in Ljubljana. In season 2023/24 she is taking the Chief Conductor position of Danish National Vocal Ensemble in Copenhagen.
The Slovenian is a sought-after guest conductor and has been on podium of the RIAS Chamber Choir, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, MDR Rundfunkchor, SWR Vokalensemble, Chorwerk Ruhr, as well as the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, Swedish Radio Choir, Danish National Vocal Ensemble, The Norwegian Soloists' Choir, Suomen Laulu Choir & Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Nederlands Kamerkoor, Netherlands Radio Choir, Flemish Radio Choir, Gulbenkian Choir and others.Future highlights include her return visits to Nederlands Kamerkoor, Netherlands Radio Choir, Gulbenkian Orchestra & Choir and engagements with Flemish Radio Choir, SWR Vokalensemble, Coro Casa da Musica Porto, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Zürcher Sing-Akademie, Helsinki Chamber Choir, Bachchor Salzburg among others.
Martina Batič has conducted A cappella concerts at festivals such as Baltic Sea Stockholm, Ultima Oslo, Choregies d’Orange, Montpellier, Saint-Denis and Présences Paris. In 2018 she conducted the Swedish Radio Choir & Eric Ericson Chamber Choir in a gala concert on the occasion of Eric Ericson's 100th birthday.
Martina Batič obtained her Bachelor of Music from the Music Academy of the University of Ljubljana in 2002. She continued her studies at the University of Music and Theater in Munich in the class of Prof. Michael Gläser, where she completed her master's degree in choral conducting with distinction in 2004. She attended master classes across Europe and worked with renowned choral conductors such as Eric Ericson.
In 2019 Martina Batič received the Slovenian national prize “Prešeren Fund Awards” for her artistic achievements in the field of choral conducting. -
Lu Zheng
Viola
Lu Zheng was born in August 1977 in Tian Jin, China. He began violin and viola lessons at the age of six. Between 1989 and 1997, he attended the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he completed further and advanced viola studies. He was Principal Viola of the China Youth Orchestra between 1994 and 1997. In 1998, he was one of the founding members of the Chinese Quartet, and performed with this ensemble at the Évora and Algarve Music Festivals, at the invitation of the Fundação Oriente. In the meantime, he took advanced classes in chamber music with Max Rabinovitsj and in viola with Barbara Friedhoff and Bruno Pasquier.
Between 2000 and 2004, Lu Zheng was Soloist B with the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa. He is a teacher of viola and chamber music and regularly performs solo recitals and chamber music. He joined the Gulbenkian Orchestra in 2005.
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João Tiago Dinis
Viola
João Tiago Dinis was born in 1987 in Aveiro. In 2007, while still young, he joined the Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras, where he began his professional career. In 2023, he won a competition to become the B soloist for the Gulbenkian Orchestra’s viola section, which he still currently holds. He has also collaborated with various Portuguese and international orchestras such as the Kölner Kammerorchester, Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa and, as first viola, the Orquestra do Festival de Marvão, Orquestra Clássica de Espinho and the Sinfonietta de Ponta Delgada, among others. As a soloist, Dinis has performed with the Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras and the University of Aveiro’s Orquestra de Cordas.
In the context of chamber music, he has collaborated with the Quarteto de Cordas de Aveiro, as one of its founders, and with the Quarteto da Orquestra Clássica do Centro.
Dinis studied for a music degree at the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo do Porto (ESMAE) and at the University of Aveiro, where he won third place in the Frederico de Freitas Prize in 2017. He is regularly invited to give masterclasses and workshops at institutions around the country.
Dinis plays a viola by Luís Claudio Manfio, “Isola Di Torcello”, from 2020 and a viola by António Capela from 2009.
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Martin Henneken
Cello
Martin Henneken received his first cello lessons at the age of six. He studied at the Musikhochschule Lübeck (Germany) with Troels Svane. He later studied with Reinhard Latzko at the Vienna University of Music (Austria) where he completed his Master’s degree with distinction. Musicians such as cellist Lynn Harrell and violinist Walter Levin (LaSalle Quartet) complemented his training. He has won awards several times at the German National Young Musicians Competition. He was a student of the Live Music Now Foundation created by Yehudi Menuhin.
During his studies, he played regularly with various orchestras, such as the Lübeck Philharmonic, the Volksoper Wien Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra of India, Mumbai. In 2009 and 2010, he was a member of the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna Philharmonic) with which he had the opportunity to participate in recordings, international tours and festivals (Salzburg, Lucerne, BBC Proms). Since 2010, he has been 2nd Cello Soloist of the Gulbenkian Orchestra.
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Jeremy Lake
Cello
Jeremy Lake was born in London, UK, and began playing the cello at the age of ten. At fifteen, he joined the National Youth Orchestra and later won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied with Joan Dickson and Amanda Truelove. During his time at the RCM, he won several prizes, particularly in chamber music. He was selected to participate in a masterclass with Mstislav Rostropovich and also performed chamber music with him in concert.
After graduating from the RCM, Jeremy pursued further studies with Clive Greensmith, Timothy Hugh, and Johannes Goritzki in Düsseldorf, Germany.
As a freelance musician, he performed with all the major orchestras and ensembles in the UK and was highly active as both a chamber musician and soloist.
In 1998, he moved to Lisbon, Portugal, to join the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra and also became a professor at ANSO, one of the city's leading music conservatories. He later began performing with the Gulbenkian Orchestra and was appointed principal cello of the OML in 2004. Since 2005, he has been a full-time member of the Gulbenkian Orchestra. In 2013, he also became a founding member of Camerata Atlântica.
Jeremy continues to perform regularly as a chamber musician and soloist.
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Domingos Ribeiro
Double Bass
Domingos Ribeiro was born in Macao in 1992. He began his musical studies with Cristina Costa at the Calouste Gulbenkian Conservatory of Music in Braga. He graduated in 2013 from the Lisbon Conservatory, in Manuel Rego's class. He later studied at the Escuela Superior de Música Reine Sofía in Madrid with Duncan McTier and Antonio García Araque, with a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Albeniz Foundation. He was an academician with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, an orchestra with which he still works, collaborating regularly with Philipp Stubenrauch, Wies de Boevé, Heinrich Braun and Alexandra Scott. He also complemented his career by attending masterclasses or private lessons with Janne Saksala, Matthew McDonald, Rinat Ibragimov, Catalin Rotaru, Petru Iuga, Edicson Ruiz, Benedikt Hubner, Gary Karr, Iouri Axenov, Wolfgang Güttler, Hans Adler, Tom Goodman and others.
He played in a number of youth orchestras, most particularly the Orchestre de Jeunes de la Méditerranée and the European Union Youth Orchestra, in both of which he was Section Leader. He has been guest reinforcement for Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto - Casa da Música in 2014, the National Orchestra of Spain in 2016 and the Budapest Festival Orchestra in 2017. In addition to these orchestras, he has also played with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Metropolitan Orchestra of Lisbon and Orquestra XXI, among others. He has worked with many conductors, including Mariss Janson, Bernard Haitink, Simon Rattle, Kirill Petrenko, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Riccardo Muti, John Eliot Gardiner, Franz Welser-Möst, Kent Nagano, Ton Koopman, David Afkham, Krzysztof Urbański, Christian Zacharias, Alain Altinoglu, Lahav Shani, Matthias Pintscher, Christian Macelaru, Susanna Malkki, Carlo Rizzi, Peter Eötvös, Bertrand de Billy, Pietari Inkinen, Juanjo Mena, Peter Stark, Vasili Petrenko, Lawrence Foster, Michael Zilm, Brad Lubman, Michael Sanderling, Enrico Pomàrico, James Judd and Olari Elts.
As a soloist, he has performed with the Lisbon Conservatory Symphony Orchestra and with the Camerata Gareguin Arantounian. He won the first edition of the Vasco Barbosa Competition in 2015, having performed solo at the Centro Cultural de Belém, with Camerata Atlântica, and recorded for RDP - Antena 2. In 2017, he was selected for the position of Leader of the Double Bass section - 1st Soloist - in the Gulbenkian Orchestra, a title he currently holds. He is in the 2nd year of his Masters in Music Teaching at Lisbon Conservatory. He is regularly invited to direct masterclasses and chamber music projects.
Fanny Mendelssohn
Nachtreigen
Clara Schumann
Drei Gemischte Chöre
Robert Schumann
Romanzen für Frauenstimmen, op. 69
Franz Schubert
Gesang der Geister über den Wassern
Johannes Brahms
Fest- und Gedenksprüche, op. 109
Total approximate duration: 70 min / Concert without intermission
Composed by Johannes Brahms in 1889 as a response to the title of honorary citizen awarded to him by the city of Hamburg, the choral work Fest und Gedenksprüche was more broadly intended by the German composer to be performed on dates of collective celebration. Brahms had the recent unification of the German Empire in 1871 in mind, choosing Bible passages as the lyrics to be sung by a mixed choir. In this a cappella programme directed by Martina Batič, Brahms’ work is joined by creations by Schubert and Robert and Clara Schumann.
Sponsor Gulbenkian Music
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation reserves the right to collect and keep records of images, sounds and voice for the diffusion and preservation of the memory of its cultural and artistic activity. For further information, please contact us through the Information Request form.
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